Munster await word on Flannery

RUGBY:MUNSTER WERE unable to give any clear indications regarding Jerry Flannery's immediate prospects yesterday as Tony McGahan mobilised his troops ahead of Friday's Magners League encounter against Treviso.

Having suffered a recurrence of his recent calf injury against Toulon at the weekend, Flannery was the only obvious omission from the pack of forwards which was put through its paces at Limerick University.

The 32-year-old hooker instead travelled to Cork where his injury was assessed by a specialist.

Team manager Shaun Payne explained that consultants would have to wait on the results of an MRI scan before making any projections, but assured that an update should be available by the end of the week.

Payne also ruled out any suggestion that the player’s return to action had been rushed, commenting: “We were absolutely confident that he was ready to come back. We had taken the precaution of not rushing him back the week before and instead we put him through 40 minutes of a club game.

“He came through that with flying colours, felt really good in training, and we were really confident that he was 100 per cent ready to go. There would have been more questions asked if we hadn’t involved him.”

In other injury news, it was revealed Danny Barnes could be out for six weeks having dislocated his elbow in last week’s British and Irish Cup game against Llanelli.

Management were unable to give an expected return date for Barry Murphy, however, who was forced to pull out in the lead-up to that game.

Tomás O’Leary and Paul O’Connell are both recovering well, meanwhile. Although unable to participate fully, their influence in training is palpable, as it was during last Saturday’s clash against Toulon.

Payne labelled the pair, “our best representation amongst the water boys and message carriers, ever!” It’s conceivable Munster could name an unchanged starting XV this weekend though Donncha O’Callaghan is approaching his cut-off point in terms of games allowed by national management, and is likely to sit this one out.

Payne also hinted that Denis Leamy was due a rest, and Johne Murphy too, though with resources stretched Murphy may have to wait one more week before getting some respite.

With Ireland due to play South Africa on November 6th, it’s not yet clear whether Munster will have their front-line internationals available for the trip to Ulster one week prior to then.

Payne concluded: “That’s something we will be consulting with national management on and we’ll make a decision closer to the time.”

MUNSTER SQUAD (v Treviso): W Du Preez, M Horan, M Sherry, D Varley, J Hayes, D Hurley, T Buckley, D Ryan, B Holland, D Ryan, D O’Callaghan, M O’Driscoll, A Quinlan, D Wallace, N Ronan, D Leamy, P O’Mahony, J Coughlan, D Williams, P Stringer, R O’Gara, S Deasy, P Warwick, K Earls, J Murphy, D Howlett, D Hurley, I Dineen.